I. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to communication, and more specifically to techniques for receiving data and paging from multiple wireless communication systems.
II. Background
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various communication services such as voice, packet data, video, broadcast, messaging, and so on. These systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting communication for multiple users by sharing the available system resources. Examples of such multiple-access systems include Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) systems, and Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) systems. A CDMA system may implement a radio technology such as cdma2000 or Wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA). cdma2000 covers IS-2000, IS-95 and IS-856 standards. A TDMA system may implement a radio technology such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). These various radio technologies and standards are known in the art.
Some wireless communication systems can provide voice and packet data services. One such system is a CDMA2000 1X system (or simply, a 1X system) that implements IS-2000 and/or IS-95. Voice and packet data services have different characteristics and requirements. For example, voice service typically requires a common grade of service (GoS) for all users and further imposes relatively stringent delay requirements. In contrast, packet data service may be able to tolerate different GoS for different users and variable delays. To support both voice and packet data services, the 1X system may first allocate system resources to voice users and then allocate any remaining system resources to packet data users who are able to tolerate longer delays.
Some wireless communication systems are optimized for packet data service. One such system is a CDMA2000 1xEV-DO system (or simply, a 1xEV-DO system) that implements IS-856. A packet data session typically has long periods of silence and sporadic bursts of traffic. The 1xEV-DO system allocates most or all of the system resources to one user at any given moment, thereby greatly increasing the peak data rate for the user being served.
A service provider/network operator may deploy multiple wireless communication systems to provide enhanced services for its subscribers. For example, the service provider may deploy a 1X system to provide voice and packet data services for a large geographic area and may deploy a 1xEV-DO system to provide packet data service for areas where packet data usage is expected to be high. The coverage areas of the two systems typically overlap.
A hybrid terminal may be able to communicate with both 1X and 1xEV-DO systems. The terminal may receive service from one or both systems at any given moment depending on the capabilities of the terminal, the desired service(s), and whether the terminal is within the coverage areas of these systems. In a common operating scenario, the terminal may register with the 1X system and may monitor this system for pages and other messages. The terminal may also establish a data session with the 1xEV-DO system to obtain packet data service. For this scenario, it is desirable to achieve good performance (e.g., high throughput) for the 1xEV-DO system while monitoring the 1X system so that incoming pages will not be missed.
There is therefore a need in the art for techniques to receive data and paging from multiple communication systems.